Fireworks, A Personal Fly Over, World Cup, and Movies

 

Fireworks

My Mom's best friend from France, Patou (who my Mom and I stayed with in 2016), is visiting for the month.  She flew in a week ago.  We've been taking her on little adventures.  It's so hot!  That's limited some of the things we've done.  But we've taken her to Colonial Days, the movies, Sundance, Gardner Village, and other dodads.

It's nice that she came during the 4th of July celebrations, regardless of the heat.  There's always something going on celebrating the history of this Country.  We didn't go to any major firework show.  Instead my Dad gave my brother Michael and I some money to step out and buy some while dinner was cooking, and we came back with a little stash.

Stadium of Fire, a grand firework/performance show in Provo, was taking place, and before the start of their show there's a flyover with jets from Hill Air Force Base.  Before the jets headed over to Provo they did a couple pass overs around our house.  It was amazing!  Their second circle around came by the left side of our house with a tight turn to out right, the jets low to the ground.  It seemed like the turn happened only a couple blocks away as we saw the top part of the four jets facing us, cockpits and pilots clearly visible.  I'm not describing this well.  They felt closer than any airshow I've been to.  And the rush of sound!  Completely tight circling around us before heading north and then south again.  Definitely something I've never experienced before and probably never will again.  Our own private flyover, close and personal, more amazing than any simple fly over I've experienced at events.  And no, I'm not over exaggerating. I just feel a great lack in writing to express the magnitude of the experience.

Everyone in the surrounding neighborhoods set of fireworks, ground and safe aerials. This year our neighborhood put all of our fireworks in a pile, neighbors down the street bringing lawn chairs, everyone gathered on various lawns, as we put on our own private, but humble firework show.  It was fun.  There were some great fireworks exploding right overhead, and there were some duds, but that's what you get when you buy mystery firework packs.  Several blocks away, in the distance, there are some people who put on a really nice firework show, like a grand final in bunches.  We can see their show through the trees.  Always amazes me.  And someone was shooting fireworks off the top of the mountains!  Pretty sure that's illegal as fire risk is high this year, but it was interesting to see tiny fireworks explode at the top, so minuscule.

World Cup

I've been pretty ambivalent to the World Cup.

I didn't know it was in Russia until I got a drink from McDonald's a couple weeks back and saw the World Cup logo.

With the USA not making the tournament I haven't had much interest in watching, but now that Patou is with us we've been watching the games, and I've been getting into the matches. (Shock/horror).  France against Belgium this coming week?!  That's going to be interesting, though I won't be able to see the match.  Patou doesn't care which one wins as they're both French speaking.  Personally, though I'm a sports dunce and haven't been watching, with what I've seen so far I think Belgium might advance.  We'll see!  And I was really impressed with Croatia during their match with Russia.  I didn't watch England during their match yesterday because there was a family activity I was at, which was really nice.

Movies

I haven't been movie reviewing lately because I haven't really been going to the movies!!  It's strange.  I finally saw the Han Solo movie, which was the film I saw this last week, and I've got quite a few opinions developing.  I'm letting my thoughts stew a little.  Still feeling burned over The Last Jedi.  Stewing only made my opinions worse with that movie.  There are movies I missed in the theater that are out on Blu-ray, and though I have them, I still haven't seen any of those films.  This must be some weird phase I'm going though.

I was going to write more random stuff, but my mind is drawing a blank.  Have a great week!

(BTW, I had to write this post out twice, as the first draft got highlighted white, and blogger doesn't have a way of getting rid of highlight unless you change the color.  Can't there be a "none" option?  really frustrating.  Oh well.)

Reminiscing Over Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom

This was the last day of a 6 day trip to Walt Disney World, this day falling on June 12, 2016, and the second time I visited the Magic Kingdom that trip.  My Mom and I choose to make the Magic Kingdom the bookends of our trip, and it was a good way to finish our visit.

The rest of the words from this blog come from what I wrote in the Shutterfly book highlighting the trip I made.  (BTW, I highly recommend Shutterfly, or other similar sites, that turn photos into books.  So worth it.  Treasures, always.  My nieces have actually fallen asleep at bedtime with the books I've made them of past trips, and they remember the trips better because of it.)

"What a wonderfully fun day this was!  Our very last day at Disney World and we wanted to return to the Magic Kingdom.  Taking everything in, including the castle, we wandered down Main Street.  We did so much that day.  First we returned to Columbia Harbour House for lunch.  Mom ate the fish & chips again.  I tried the chicken pot pie with a side of broccoli.

 (not sure how I feel about the finger print scanners)

 

 

 "After this we hopped in line for the Haunted Mansion, which had a decently short line.  The room with the stairs was neat.  And then we road the Mark Twain around beautiful Tom Sawyer Island."

 "The weather predicted that in the afternoon we were going to be slammed by rain fall that would last until evening.  I was worried so many things were going to be canceled.  I kept checking the weather on my phone seeing a huge rain system nearing on the radar, which made me nervous, but I wanted to enjoy each moment.  After the steam boat ride we noticed rope was being set up early for the 3 o'clock parade, Festival of Fantasy.  I got a front row seat right up to the rope.  Mom sat close to the pin store atop a short pillar of bricks.  I loved the parade!  And then we bought too many pins!"

 "We went on the Jungle Cruise, which had a cool dark room scene at the end.  Waited in the long line for Space Mountain, which made us both queasy.  Then we went to Fantasyland to ride Journey of the Little Mermaid."

 

 "For dinner we ate pasta at Pinocchio Village Haus,

watching people load It's a Small World.

"After dinner we causally walked through Fantasyland.  We tried to walk through the castle, but it was blocked for the Electrical Parade, so we took a quaint stroll around the glowing pink castle.  The air pleasant, calm, and still.  No hint of a storm.  A miracle as I watched the storm circle around the park, dark streaks brushing the sky."

 "We didn't get a good view of the electrical parade, but got an amazing view of Celebrate the Magic, a castle light projection show, and Wishes.  Mom returned to the Pandora store while the Electrical parade made its second pass.  This time I got a very good view, enjoying the nostalgia."

"We pulled another all-nighter.  We left the Magic Kingdom around 11:30 pm.  This park is the furthest from the hotel and we still had to wait for the bus, so we got back past midnight.

"Going to bed didn't make sense.  The texi was coming at 3:30 am so we could make it to the airport by 4 am for a 6:15 flight.  We turned on the T.V., never getting under the covers, and packed away cloths and goodies.  We bought so many souvenirs!  It's amazing we were able to pack it all away in our limited luggage space.

"We left the hotel while it was dark, so exhausted by the whirlwind, amazed how quickly it flew by.  Sad to be leaving, but so glad we were finally able to experience Disney World.  We'll miss the Disney magic, but won't miss the humidity.  What an amazing week."

What wonderful memories.

I would love to return one day.

And my Walt Disney World posts are FINALLY finished! :D

Orem Summerfest

Last weekend was Summerfest in Orem UT.  It's part carnival, art show, car show,
music performances, baby contest, 5k, parade, all leading up to
an epic firework show.     

This is one of my most favorite parts of Summer.  I look forward to it each year.  

Actually, the firework show is my favorites, even, 

in my crazy opinion, besting 4th of July's Stadium of Fire.

(It's free, and the parking isn't insane!)

There was a chance the firework show wasn't going to work out this year.

It was supper windy, crazy windy, and cold.  Thankfully my Dad was Volunteering 

with his Ham radio group, and my brother and I were getting up to date information

on what was happening with the show.  The winds were suppose to calm down around

ten, so they were going to shoot a couple off to see where they go.  Thankfully those

running the show decided to go for it.

(I think these look like palm trees).  The whole show was epic.  4 or 5 of the fireworks

exploded on the ground.  That was honestly really cool. 

My brother Steven.  We shared a funnel cake (my first, as sad

as that sounds) and it was hard not getting the 

powdered sugar everywhere.  (Did I mention

how windy it was?)  It was quite a mess!

Doing the good ol' "taking a picture of myself" pose.  

Proof of how cold I was!  You

wouldn't think it was June.

Have a great day!!

Sarah